I was recently alerted to a rather surprising clause in an application for missionary funding from a major denomination in the United States.
As all large sending agencies, this denomination admirably desires to ensure that its missionaries will be exemplary witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then there is the surprising clause.
Diverse activities?
Under a heading concerning moral matters, the applicant is asked to confirm or deny whether he or she has engaged in diverse activities of a less than salutary nature over the last year. Apparently (I have not myself read the form but had it described to me), there is an indication at the top that grace will be given for moral matters, presumably referring to the questions regarding pornography and the like. Included, however, in this list of probable ‘defeaters’ for an applicant, though, is a further question asking whether an applicant has drunk alcohol in the last year. I am told that one previous applicant was rejected for having answered yes to the alcohol question because he had cooked with alcohol in the last year. Said applicant, by the way, was a chef.
